Treating ficus whitefly is costly

Christine Winter Juneau Ground Rules

If your ficus hedges haven't been defoliated by the voracious insects yet, it's likely they will be eventually.

The official advice is to use a systemic insecticide - one that is applied to the ground around the plant, which then will move up through the bush.

Two products are being recommended for home use. Bayer Advanced Tree and Shrub Insect Control (a concentrate) is being phased out. The replacement is Bayer Advanced Tree and Shrub Protect and Feed, which is available in both a concentrate and a granular form, according to Bayer's Mariesa Woodring. You may still see the older version in some stores, she said, and it may be a few dollars cheaper. The only difference is the newer formulation includes three months of fertilizer.

The other option is Spectracide Systemic Tree and Shrub Insect Control and Fertilizer, which is available only in concentrate.

University of Florida researchers say these products should provide 4 to 8 months of protection, perhaps longer, but you should inspect your shrubs every three months. The product labels say they could last as long as a year.

I just figured out how much it would cost me to fight this pest. Yikes. I have roughly 225 ficus hedges, about 75 of them are 10 feet tall, and about 150 are 4 1 / 2 feet tall. They are just starting to show signs of damage.

Using the Bayer concentrate, at about $20 for a 32-ounce container, I figure it will cost me at least $2,700 for a one-time treatment, with the possibility I would have to repeat it again at least once. I am in no mood in this economic climate to spend thousands of dollars on my ficus, though the thought of looking at bare twigs is pretty unappealing, too.

So I had what I thought was a bright idea to enlist Mother Nature's help. There are natural predators in the environment: six different kinds of beetles, 2 parasites and lacewings. But it doesn't look like they can keep up. So I looked into ordering ladybugs online: at one site, I found 36,000 ladybugs for about $50.

Unfortunately, Catharine Mannion, a researcher at the University of Florida, responded in an e-mail that ladybugs would "probably not make any difference and therefore be a waste of money." So much for that idea.

She suggested easing the financial burden by treating in stages, going for the most infested areas first. She also said spread of the whitefly may slow down in cooler weather, allowing homeowners to spread out the cost to next spring. She warned to save any foliar insecticidal sprays for the real "hot spots," since they also kill the natural predators.

The University of Florida has not released any natural enemies yet, but is studying the idea. Although the first signs of infestation are yellowing leaves and leaf drop, Mannion advises looking on the undersides of leaves for eggs and immature stages of the whitefly - crawlers and immobile flat, oval nymphs - to get a head start on treatments.

If there's one lesson we should learn from this, it's that we need a little more diversity in our landscape.

Christine Winter Juneau is a National Wildlife Habitat Steward and the president of the Parkland Garden Club. You can reach her at Plntlady63@aol.com.